love, critters, and halloween

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phase one: completed (a bit ago, actually)

When last I spoke about the haunt itself, I needed to start painting faster. And I did, I swear. We had a bunch of walls that needed to go green. Check! And some more walls needed to go black. Check! Then the final two areas of the haunt..well, they’re a little involved. Initially the first part was to use the technique I’d used on the rough ‘boulder’ rock walls…but it fought back a bit, and I ended up using a technique I learned to do (and learned to hate) long ago: sponging. My hatred for sponging knows no bounds. I can spot it a mile away, and it instantly makes me want to pull out a roller and paint over whatever wall has had this monstrosity done to it.

Still..for a spidery themed area? Not too bad. (Although I immediately started calling it ‘booger paint.’ Because I’m often rather more 12 than I am 43.)

Sponging takes longer than one would think..and so Bones took pity on me and started helping out with a technique he prefers, called ‘stumbling.’ (There’s a video of him doing a demo of this sort of thing here.) In this case, he didn’t do the entire effect.

..and honestly, I just couldn’t get the hang of it..

..but it all works together, in an odd sort of way.

And that meant YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY I WAS DONE PAINTING ALL THE BIG SURFACES!!

…Until Bones coughed and pointed up.

CRAP.

The maze is done, the props are getting built, the word is getting out…but man, do we need signage. So I made that sign a nice blank slate..

…and a new volunteer, Josh, helped us peel the window decals off the front of this Once Upon a Car Dealership.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, of course, but these decals are the sort that allow you to see pretty well if you’re inside, but if you’re outside, you see whatever design was chosen for display. It’s neat stuff. It really doesn’t like to come off windows easily. My fingernails are still protesting! Bones and I did make it into a contest after a while, seeing who could get the biggest strip of crap to come off the glass without breaking. (He won.)

We covered the windows with stone-patterned plastic sheets called ‘Scene Setters,’ and Bones went to work painting a sign across the cleared windows for us.

As he worked, he had a drive-by or two from locals honking and saying, “Looks good!!’ Which is encouraging. But goodness, they really don’t know what’s coming..!